Murder charges dropped against O.C. teen in Nevada crash

MOAPA, NEV. – Jean Soriano was drunk and on the road in the early-morning hours of March 30. Those facts were never in dispute.

But the teen from Laguna Niguel who stood accused of killing five Southern Californians in a fatal car wreck about an hour north of Las Vegas found himself saved Wednesday afternoon when all the charges against him were dropped and it was revealed that he was simply a passenger in the vehicle that caused the crash.

Soriano, 18, sat with his head bowed and arms and legs shackled, wearing dark prison blues, and listened to prosecutor Brian Rutledge ask Justice of the Peace Ruth Kolhoss to dismiss the charges – a turn of events the veteran lawyer said he'd never seen in his 21 years of practice. The hearing was held in the small town of Moapa, 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas and near the site of the deadly crash on I-15 in which the vehicle Soriano was in collided with a van.

The hearing left Soriano's parents smiling, tearful and overwhelmed. It left relatives of the victims in the crash stone-faced, silent and unwilling to talk about the revelation. Those killed were from Norwalk, Lynwood and Los Angeles.

“I always knew he was innocent,” Soriano's mother, Perla Soriano, said. “There was no way he was driving. He never drove.”

For Soriano's family, it was a 102-day ordeal as their son stayed locked up in jail with a $3.5 million bond and a fair amount of time in solitary confinement as he battled depression and fear.

If he'd been convicted of all the charges, Soriano could've faced up to 140 years in prison. His life would've been over.

Instead, through DNA, a footprint on the driver's-side door and the work of an investigator, authorities learned the quiet teen wasn't the one behind the wheel of the Dodge Durango. Instead, they saw the evidence point to 23-year-old Alfredo Gomez of St. George, Utah, and believed the man had pressured and intimidated Soriano into taking the fall for the crash. Rutledge on Wednesday said he didn't know where Gomez was.

Soriano's lawyer, Frank Cofer, had concerns about the charges against his client as far back as the preliminary hearing in May, which was continued to Wednesday so forensics tests could be completed.

“That's one of the things that's so good about physical evidence,” Cofer said. “It can't be intimidated, it can't tell a different story, and it always tells the truth. That's why it is so much more important than confessions.”

BIWEEKLY TRIPS

For the past three months, Francisco and Perla Soriano would drive through the desert to Las Vegas every other weekend to spend a total of 48 minutes talking to their son on a video screen.

The couple, with a housecleaning business in Laguna Niguel, said they could only afford to visit him then – unable to take time off of work and unable to afford the cost of more trips to see their eldest son.

Perla Soriano said she battled depression knowing her son was locked up in jail.

Both said they perked up as they got a chance to see him, but the long drives back to Orange County were brutal.

“I'd cry all the way back home,” Perla Soriano said. “He (Francisco) would try and cheer me up.”

The couple, sitting in a side room after the preliminary hearing, laughed and cried thinking about what they'd been through. Francisco Soriano, 40, dabbed his eyes when he heard about his wife's struggles.

He said their son tried to keep them positive during their jailhouse visits. When things got too sad and his wife would cry, Jean would laugh and try to lighten the mood. Both said their son tried to keep them positive during those visits.

“He told us we should go to church more and to pray for him,” she said. “He was always telling us, ‘I love you guys.' ”

They'd leave their 16-year-old to watch the other children – though they brought the 5-year-old with them to see him twice. Both times, Perla Soriano said, she left crying.

“She saw (Jean) as a father-figure,” Perla Soriano said. “They played together and he held her a lot when she was a baby.”

Both parents said they never lost faith that their son would be exonerated. They prayed the rosary at Mission San Juan Capistrano, had Masses celebrated in Jean's name and had members of the parish pray for the family.

Francisco Soriano said it helped them gain strength in their faith. The teen's aunt said the crisis allowed them to trust in God more.

But they also had to trust in the justice system.

MUCH CRITICISM

Soriano faced a barrage of criticism in the wake of the crash and the accusations he faced.

At an earlier hearing, witnesses testified to the bloody carnage that covered the side of the highway not far north of Moapa. During that hearing, Soriano barely looked up.

Maria Cardenas, who had been driving the car in which the five who were killed were passengers when it was struck by the vehicle Soriano was in, testified in May with her arm in a sling and sobbed as she recalled calling out for help.

“I heard footsteps near the van. Then I heard two male persons talking,” she said. “‘Fool, look what we did.' ‘No, you were driving.' They just kept saying it over and over.”

Colby Allord, a witness who had stopped to help those in the crash, recalled an older man with Soriano saying, “Nobody else was involved. Don't worry about it.”

But he did remember Soriano. “This gentlemen didn't talk at all,” he recalled.

That's not surprising, Soriano's father said Wednesday.

He said his son takes after him – quiet and reserved. But the parents acknowledged their son hadn't had a smooth life.

They said their son had some scrapes with the law and had been spending time at a juvenile facility in Santa Ana for engaging in graffiti and truancy, according to his parents.

He had left the Youth Guidance Center in Santa Ana on March 1 in what Orange County authorities have described as an escape, though the Orange County Sheriff's Department wasn't notified he had turned up missing at the time, Orange County Probation Department officials disclosed after the fatal crash.

His mother on Wednesday said he moved to St. George – a city 120 miles northeast of Las Vegas – to “get away from that crowd” that was a bad influence and so he could spend time learning how to become an auto mechanic.

Nelly Ciprian, his mother's sister, took him into her home in St. George.

Ciprian said she's not entirely sure how he got hooked up with Gomez, but she said they were nothing more than acquaintances.

Ciprian said she's angry that Soriano spent time in jail and was accused of the crime. But Soriano's parents said they are just happy to have their son back – as soon as he can be processed out of the jail.

His mother said she knew exactly what she’d do the minute she saw him walk out the jail.

“I'm going to give him a big hug,” she said.

That may not happen soon; a fugitive warrant from Orange County has been filed against Soriano.